Wolves of Mibu
by half-demon girl
Summary: How the Shinsengumi wound up with the name the "Wolves of Mibu". It all started with a wolf pup...
1. In The Beginning

A 17 year old Toshizo Hijikata walked down the same dirt path towards the same dojo he had been attending classes for several months now. He had his box of herbs on his back and was in his usual black attire he used for peddling.

The path was paralleled by woods on one side while the other was a farmer's field that led to a river.

As he rounded a slight curve, the bushes rustled a little, causing him to stop and look over his left shoulder. He went for a small dagger he kept with him in case of Ronin or robbers along the way.

Out of the rustling bushes wobbled a little greyish brown pup that was coated in blood and limping. The small, roughly 10 kg, pup looked at him with dull brown eyes and an unsteady stance. It slowly limped up to him and leaned against his legs and slid down to pass out on his feet with a sigh.

Toshizo felt the cold pup against him and knew this wasn't going to end well. He looked around, trying to see if he could find the parents of the pup, or what did this to the poor creature. Once he deemed the place empty except for the pup and himself, he let go of his dagger and looked down at the passed out pup. He slid one of his feet out from under the pup.

The pup opened its eyes and looked up at him.

He sighed. He had to put this pup out of its misery. He bent down and grabbed the pup by the scruff.

The pup wagged its tail weakly as Toshizo brought it face to face. The pup even weakly licked his face.

Toshizo scuffed and wiped off the slobber with the back of his free hand. He brought the pup to his chest and cradled it before setting off into the woods.

The pup nuzzled into him affectionately.

Toshizo let the pup, knowing that it was going to be the last affection it would ever receive. He got to a place far enough from the path, where he decided to put the pup down. He knelt beneath a tree and put the pup down on the grass. He removed his bag before dealing with the pup. He pulled out his dagger and unsheathed it.

The pup watched him with slight interest in its dulled eyes.

Toshizo picked up the pup again. "Sorry, pup." He whispered before bringing the dagger close to the pup.

Suddenly, the pup bit the hand that was holding it, not enough to draw blood, but enough to let him know it wasn't needle teeth in that mouth.

"Ow," He winced and dropped the pup.

The pup suddenly seemed to come alive. Every time he grabbed the pup, it stayed still but when he brought his dagger near it, it would struggle, scratch, and bite him. During the battle, he figured out it was a female when it flipped over on its back to use its paws to keep his hand at bay.

"I'm trying to be nice to you and end your suffering," Toshizo sighed before putting the dagger away in its sheath. "It looks like you want to go down the hard way." Toshizo said and grabbed his pack and stood up.

The pup hobbled over to him.

He turned and began to walk back to the path. He glanced over his shoulder every once in a while.

The pup was still following him.

Once he reached the path, he looked again; the pup was farther back, but still following him. He sighed and continued on his path to the dojo. He finally arrived at the dojo.

Kondo was waiting at the gate for him, arms crossed and slightly leaning on the gate frame. "You finally got here," Kondo smiled then looked up and over Toshizo to the path behind him. Toshizo turned around to look at what Kondo was looking at.

It's the little pup from before; she had just capped the little hill and is hobbling her way towards the dojo gate.

Toshizo let out a slightly aggravated sigh.

"It looks wounded." Kondo stated before he unfolded his arms and walked towards the pup.

The pup had made her way to about 2 meters from the front of the dojo gate. She stopped and looked up at Kondo, who stopped in front of her.

Kondo reached down to pick the pup up. He held her up under her front legs on her chest. "Did it follow you all this way, Toshi?" Kondo asked looking the pup up and down before looking over his shoulder at Toshizo.

"Unfortunately," Toshizo sighed, "I tried to get rid of it, but it refused and continued to follow me."

"She's pretty injured," Kondo mentioned.

The pup began to squirm in Kondo's grasp.

Kondo put her down and watched her as she wobbled over to Toshizo and painfully sat at his feet to look up at him, her tail wagging weakly. Kondo chuckled, "It looks like she likes you."

Toshizo sighed in agitation. He crouched down and patted the pup's head. "It'd be too much trouble to keep her here." Toshizo told Kondo, trying to make sure Kondo wasn't thinking of keeping the pup.

"She'd be nice to keep around," Kondo stated, walking up and looking down at the happy injured pup in front of Toshizo. "It won't be any trouble to keep her here for you."

Toshizo shot his gaze up to Kondo, "She's not mine."

Kondo chuckled, "Looks like someone begs to differ." Kondo looked down again at the pup in front of them.

Toshizo looked down at the pup.

The pup tried to get up and struggled into Toshizo's lap.

Toshizo sighed and scooped the pup up into his arms and stood up. "I'll clean up her wounds and make sure there are no broken bones." Toshizo stated while turning and walking into the dojo.


	2. A Name

It had been several days since the pup was brought into the dojo. She healed remarkably and was bounding around in no time.

Toshizo and Kondo were both surprised to find out that she had no broken bones, despite how she looked.

Now, she began to form a typical habit, which Kondo found interesting. Around noon, she would sit at the front of the dojo and wait for Toshizo to arrive, there she would greet him, and follow him around the dojo until he left, where she would go to the gate but never go past it, and watch him walk away.

Kondo heard her whimper a couple times, but he bent down, patted her head and reassured her that Toshizo would come back.

* * *

It had been several weeks since the pup arrived. She was gaining a healthy weight and started to grow.

Toshizo was hell bent on not naming it because he was sure it would run away.

Kondo, however, was thinking of names while he was sitting in the sparring hall watching his students. "I'm telling you, Toshi," Kondo said, "She's not going anywhere. She refuses to go outside the gate." Kondo explained to Toshizo, who was getting ready to spar with another student.

"It doesn't matter what she does now, she will eventually leave on her own terms." Toshizo finished tying his hakama. "So we shouldn't become attached." Toshizo looked down at the pup by his feet, which was happily panting and wagging her tail.

"I think she's too attached to you to go anywhere," Kondo chuckled slightly.

Toshizo glared at him out of the corner of his eye. Toshizo started to spar another student. Toshizo was good and fast, but for some reason, he felt off today. Toshizo wasn't paying attention and went to parry the boken too late and he got hit on the upper left arm.

Suddenly, the student was jerked backwards. "Oi!" He looked behind him and down.

It was the pup. She was growling as viciously as her puppy voice would let her and had a mouth full of his hakama and was vigorously shaking her head back and forth.

Suddenly, the whole dojo erupted in laughter. Toshizo had a pulse mark over his right temple. He went and picked the pup up, who only let go of the hakama when she felt a hand scruff her neck. Toshizo glared at the pup as he brought her face to face with himself and all the pup did was wag her tail and lick Toshizo's face. Toshizo winced and wiped the slobber off with the back of his hand.

Kondo laughed, "I don't know, Toshizo! Ha ha ha, she's getting pretty attached to you!" Kondo couldn't help but laugh at the pup. "She was quick to get over there too. Once she saw you get hit, she bolted over there." Suddenly, it hit Kondo. "Hey, now there's an idea, bolt, lightning, Rai!"

Toshizo put the pup down and it scampered over to Kondo, "How does that sound? Rai?" The pup barked and wagged her tail in excitement of her new name. "Rai it is then!" Kondo smiled triumphantly and stroked the pup's, now called Rai, head. Kondo began to coo to the pup using her new name.


	3. Growing Pains

It's been slightly over a month since Rai came to the dojo. Kondo and Gen help to take care of her while Toshizo is away. Toshizo would complain to Kondo that he is spoiling the pup. Kondo then began to slightly tease Rai by adding "sama" at the end of her name. Kondo was occupying Rai while Toshizo was sparring; noticing how big she was that she now took up his whole lap and began to look lanky. He grabbed a hold of her front paws and looked at them.

"Toshi! Just look at the size of her paws! She's going to be a big one when she gets older! I'd say 50 kilos easy. I wonder what type of dog you are." Kondo happily pointed out to Toshizo when he took a break from sparring. Kondo held Rai's paws up to show Toshizo, however, Rai decided to bite Kondo's hands that were holding her paws captive. "Yeow!" Kondo quickly let go of the poor pup's paws.

Rai jumped out of Kondo's lap and scampered after Toshizo through the flurry of hakamas and feet. She danced and weaved effortlessly around the moving students as they sparred with one another until she came up to Toshizo. She stood there watching Toshizo spar his opponent; she would move ever so slightly, either to get out of the way of others or to watch from a slightly different angle.

Suddenly, Toshizo stopped and snatched Rai up from the ground. He walked back over to Kondo and put her down. "Stay out of the way. We don't want you to get hurt during our practice." He scolded at her before he turned back and started to spar with his opponent again.

Rai whimpered slightly, but obeyed and watched Toshizo from where she was sitting.

* * *

The months went on and Rai kept growing. She entered the awkward puppy phase of long legs, big paws, and big ears. Her baby fur started to shed out and become more of a beautiful grey color rather than the puppy dog brown grey.

Kondo and the others couldn't help but laugh sometimes at Rai's expressions.

Rai couldn't help that one of her ears would tip to the inside slightly, the cartilage was building up. However, in the meantime, it made her look silly when she tilted her head to the side.

* * *

Fall was drawing to a close and winter was slowly setting in as time continued its never ending quest.

Toshizo started to stay at the dojo more and wound up taking room in one of the empty chambers for the winter.

"Awe, Toshi, don't be so cruel." Kondo stated to Toshizo outside the screen door, which he closed to keep a certain pup out.

Rai had made it a habit to stay near Toshizo's door and would curl up at night against the screens.

* * *

One night, it got especially cold. Toshizo was in a light doze under two thick futon blankets in his room. His violet eyes opened slightly as the wind rattle the screens. He turned to look at the door, knowing full well that Rai was still outside, probably curled up against one of the panels for warmth. He sighed and let his head fall back onto his pillow. He closed his eyes to try and drift off back to sleep. However, he couldn't shake the guilty feeling he had, leaving the poor pup outside on such a cold night. Finally, the wind blew hard enough for him to sit up and toss his blankets off him. He went to the screen door and slid it open and looked down.

Sure enough, there was the fuzz ball, back to Toshizo, with a light dusting of snow coating her. She opened her eyes and looked up at Toshizo with a blank expression.

Toshizo sighed, "Alright, you can come on in." Rai stood up and walked into the room. "But you better not pee anywhere." Toshizo told her before closing the screen door. Toshizo climbed back into his futon.

Rai shook trying to dry herself from the snow. She found a nice little warm spot by the door and curled up. She was about to fall asleep when Toshizo's voice caused her to look at him.

"What are you doing?" Toshizo questioned the pup. "Do you want to catch your death?" Toshizo sighed, before he patted the space on his futon next to him. "Come here."

Rai stood up but hesitantly walked over to where Toshizo patted. Before Rai knew what was happening, two blankets were thrown over her and an arm wrapped around her, pulling her.

"Geez, you're cold. How could you stand being out there for that long?" Toshizo's voice muttered to Rai as she squirmed to get comfortable and to be able to poke her head out from under the blankets. Toshizo's eyes were already closed. "Just don't get used to this, pup." He muttered as he drifted off to sleep.

Rai managed to find a comfortable spot and close her eyes to fall asleep.

* * *

It was after that day, Rai would never sleep outside again. It weighed too much on Toshizo's mind to let her sleep outside again. The room was officially known as Toshizo's room; therefore it was Rai's room as well.

Nothing really came together until the last month of the year when Kondo and Toshizo were sitting on the porch, drinking tea and watching Rai bound around in the snow and bite at the fresh falling snowflakes.

"She sure has energy," Kondo noted of Rai as she buried her way under the snow only to pop up with a snow covered head.

Toshizo just smiled slightly.

"Hey, Toshi," Kondo looked over to Toshizo, "have you been training her? If you haven't maybe you should start." Kondo stated. He looked back at the spritely pup.

Toshizo whistled.

Rai turned around from playing with the local birds and made a bee line for Toshizo. She came up and plopped her butt down in front of him and Kondo, tongue lolling out to the right side of her mouth.

"Wow, good girl." Kondo stated in slight amazement.

Toshizo smiled slightly, "Yeah, good girl, Rai."

Rai's tail was going so fast that her entire body was moving with it and making a hole in the snow.

Kondo looked at Toshizo slack jawed. Did he just hear that right? Did Toshizo just call Rai by her name? For the first time!? Kondo smiled before closing his eyes and facing the garden.


	4. Fighting Spirit

(1853)

Spring finally arrived.

One morning, Toshizo woke up to something heavy lying across him. He grunted a bit before looking over the sheets to see Rai laying on him. He grunted again, "You're not getting any smaller you know." He lifted his right arm as he sat up, causing the canine to roll off him to his right.

Rai's body made a slight thud on the tatami matting. She yawned and stretched.

Toshizo rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his black hair. He looked over at the grey canine that was still stretching to get the morning kinks out of her muscles.

Rai had really grown; she'd easily doubled her weight. Toshizo estimated her weight to be a little more than 20 kg, maybe almost 25. She still had long legs, but was growing into her big ears and paws nicely.

In the sparring hall, Souji Okita, an 11 year old boy who had progressed rapidly through Kondo's program, was selected to help train Rai. Today was the day they would see what she was capable of doing, whether it be fighting, running errands, or just a pet around the dojo.

Rai just sat there, across from Souji, staring at him blankly. She tilted her head to the side slightly, seeming to be confused as to why she was in front of someone with a wooden sword. She glanced to Toshizo, who was empty handed, before looking back at the boy that stood in front of her.

Souji stood at the ready with his bokken.

"I don't know Kondo; do you think it wise to teach her how to fight?" Gen asked Kondo in a slightly concerned tone. The two men stood on the sidelines watching intently.

"I don't know." Kondo replied as they looked on. "But I have complete faith that Toshi knows when she becomes too dangerous; she will have to be dealt with." A serious air fell about the training hall.

"Fight!" One of the older students yelled.

Souji was more than ready and raced towards Rai, swinging his bokken.

Rai just got up and danced around him, easily dodging his seemingly feeble swings.

Kondo and Gen both had sweat marks on the back of their heads. "Ok, maybe she doesn't have a fighting spirit." Kondo muttered. Toshizo watched on in silence, studying her movements.

"Come back here ya mutt!" Souji was getting fed up with Rai just dancing around and chased after her with the bokken raised over his head.

After about fifteen minutes of this, the match was called. Souji was panting heavily and leaning on his knees.

"Well, that was a total waste." The older student stated. "She didn't even bare a fang." Toshizo walked up and continued to examine Rai. She wasn't in the least bit tired from being chased by the boy.

"Maybe she doesn't have it in her to fight." Kondo stated as he approached the others.

"Maybe she just needs the right motivation." Gen mentioned, following Kondo.

Souji got a devilish look in his eye. He saw Toshizo standing with his back to him. Souji lunged forward and let out a yell with his bokken overhead. He swung the sword down.

Toshizo just had enough time to look up and over his shoulder at the wooden blade coming towards his head.

In a flash, Souji was thrown to his left, hands still firmly on his bokken. When Souji opened his eyes, Rai was standing between him and Toshizo.

Rai's grey hackles were raised from nose to tip of tail, her mouth clamped over the body of the bokken, teeth bared and slowly closing down on the poor blade. But what really surprised them was how vicious her growl sounded, it was deep and guttural. Almost like the earth was breaking up beneath them trying to drag them down into the pits of hell.

Suddenly, the bokken gave way and snapped under the pressure of Rai's jaws, splintering into pieces. Everyone's eyes widened and Souji sat up with what was left of the bokken handle in his right hand. Rai spat out the shard of wood in her mouth. Her glare didn't cease from Souji but her growl died down.

"Alright! That's enough!" Kondo stepped in front of Rai and Souji. He had to stop this before it went too far. He looked over at Souji, "You alright?"

Souji stood up and brushed it off like nothing happened. "Yeah, yeah." He brushed himself off.

Kondo looked down at Rai, who returned to her normal looking self, and not the vicious beast that was there before. "It's alright; nobody is going to hurt anyone here." Kondo reached down and patted Rai's head.

Toshizo retired to his room, where he spent most of the day at his desk. However, he had the screen doors wide open, letting in the fresh spring air. He glanced to the porch where Rai had been laying for the past hour, only to find the spot empty. With a confused look, he got up and walked to the doorway and found Rai beneath a blooming sakura blossom tree in the yard. She was laying there, head on her paws, taking a nap. Toshizo chuckled to himself and crossed his arms, tucking his hands into his sleeves.


End file.
